Storage devices such as hard disk drives are used to provide non-volatile data storage in a wide variety of different types of data processing systems. In a magnetic storage system, a digital data sequence is written as a sequence of magnetic flux transitions onto the surface of a magnetic storage disk in concentric, radially spaced tracks at a predetermined baud rate, wherein each track is divided into a number of addressable sectors. Each sector includes a block of user data (e.g., encoded data, parity bits, etc.) which is preceded by synchronization information including a preamble pattern and a synchronization pattern (or “sync mark”), wherein a sync mark identifies the start point of the user data. Various pattern detection techniques have been developed for use in read channels to detect sync marks in data that is read from the magnetic storage medium using magnetic read heads. In order to achieve acceptable read performance, it is important to minimize the detection error rate for sync marks, and such sync mark detection becomes increasingly problematic with increasing bit densities on magnetic storage mediums. Multi-dimensional recording techniques such as TDMR (Two Dimensional Magnetic Recording) have been developed to support higher bit densities in magnetic recording systems. With TDMR systems, two or more read heads are used to read the same track with a certain read offset, wherein each read back signal picks up different noise. TDMR enables the use of effective coding and signal processing algorithms which allow data bits to be stored at higher densities on a magnetic storage disk, and retrieved and decoded with acceptable error rates. However, sync mark detection techniques that provide individual sync mark detection in separate read channels can experience poor detection results for read heads having low signal quality.